All creation groans

In last Sunday's first reading (Rom. 8:18-23), St. Paul writes that “all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now.”

Sometimes this verse seems to resonate very strongly with current events, especially when we feel threatened by powerful forces of nature such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis – the “groaning of creation” indeed.

St. Paul, of course, has additional layers of meaning to this figure.

Creation was made subject to futility,
not of its own accord
but because of the one who subjected it.

This ties back to Genesis 1:28

God blessed them, saying:
"Be fertile and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it.
Have dominion over the fish of the sea,
the birds of the air,
and all the living things that move on the earth."

Some environmentally-minded people speak of humanity not being in “harmony” with nature, but ultimate cause of our lack of harmony with nature is our lack of harmony with God, nature's Creator.

This dynamic was described poetically by Gerard Manley Hopkins in his great poem “God’s Grandeur.”

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs --
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

This hopeful note is also echoed by St. Paul

For creation awaits with eager expectation
the revelation of the children of God.

St. Paul goes on to remind us that this groaning of nature is not only the nature outside of us, but our own created nature within us as well.

We ourselves,
who have the first fruits of the Spirit,
we also groan within ourselves
as we wait for adoption,
the redemption of our bodies.

In God’s often-mysterious ways, everything is somehow connected in the dynamic of sin and salvation.

Sometimes we compartmentalize – focusing on this and then focusing on that – and very often that is a prudent and effective method.

However, some Christians may focus strongly on environmental issues but seem not to care about issues of personal morality, while some other Christians may be vociferous about issues of personal morality but pay little heed to their God-given responsibilities in the “subjection” of the earth.

Our living of the Christian life cannot be compartmentalized. We must neither disregard nor deify Creation.

There is indeed such a thing as Christian environmentalism
(God’s creation is too valuable to be left to the pagans),
for the creation in which we live
is tied inextricably
with both sin
(sins by humanity and sins by you and me)
and with redemption
(ultimately achieved by God’s all-powerful grace
yet also to be manifested in what we do).

For creation awaits with eager expectation
the revelation of the children of God;
for creation was made subject to futility,
not of its own accord
but because of the one who subjected it,
in hope that creation itself
would be set free from slavery to corruption
and share in the glorious freedom
of the children of God.